Code Geass discussion

(I thought it might be best to post this here rather than try to carry on our debate back and forth between our reviews)

Basically, there's two ways a mecha show (or an "action" show in general) can entertain me successfully: it can be plausible, or it can be cool. A "plausible" show is one that is realistic enough that I can suspend disbelief and feel that what I'm seeing really could happen; therefore I feel a sense of danger and am genuinely intrigued. The quickest way to spoil plausibility is with one of those I-always-hit-you-always-miss scenes, like the one where Lelouch's wounded friend showed up in the new Knightmare prototype and picked off the rebel Knightmares one by one. If I recall correctly, the rebels never managed to even scratch his paint. Code Geass must have been trying for the second category of good mecha shows, the "cool" ones. These are the ones which are made so skillfully, with such perfectly chosen animation, music, timing, dialogue, etc, that I don't care if it's plausible or not, it's so exciting and fun that I like it nevertheless. I can't explain exactly how anime people sometimes pull this off, but I know it when I see it. Dancouga Nova had a kind of silly premise but (some of) the fight scenes had a distinct "coolness" to them (at least I thought). I didn't detect any particular coolness to the Code Geass fight scenes, at least not the ones I've seen so far. I've completely forgotten the music that was playing, nor do I recall any thrilling camera tricks or memorable lines spoken by anybody.

A really excellent show would be both plausible and cool; a possible contender for that honor would be my current mecha favorite, Soukou Kihei Votoms - Pailsen Files (OVA).

I suppose it could be argued that Mobile Suits as a whole aren't exactly "plausible"; if they were, why haven't they been adopted in real life? And why do they tend to be armed with some sort of sword or bladed weapon? The unfortunate truth is that there's not much opportunity for heroism in high tech combat; but that fact doesn't make for a very entertaining anime, so it's generally ignored.

Hey stretch, I was not debating the point any further, i was just posting my summary of the show as i had not done so yet...maybe i put a few points in there that all britannians are not bad and vice versa, but as far as I am concerned you are right to view things as you like...but i did need to add a better review than a play by play of what i was watching during the season...and of course i was propping the show up for future readers of my review...that being said...thank you for your input(s) always appreciated...

Just for the record .. I think that both of you are wrong .. (and I am always right)

PS ... I think BF has a thing for bunny-girls ;>)

that is one thing i have a complaint about this show, they always dress kallen up as some freedom fighter chick(yes i know she is), but when they draw her in school and/or in episode 1 season 2(the bunny suit), she kicks butt... And yes i like bunny girls kinda the city hunter side of me :-P

Well, I'm definitely not trying to irritate anyone or prove that mine is the only reasonable interpretation of the show. In fact, I wish I understood better why a show that everybody else seems to like didn't appeal all that much to me (that was why I wrote the first entry here). I certainly don't hate Code Geass, and I must have missed something, so I will watch the rest eventually.

Stretch - perhaps you are suffering from a severe case of good taste.

Code Geass takes about 4 or 5 episodes to really get going - especially with the plot being as complicated as it is and with all of the characters that they have to introduce. Just hang in there and keep watching ... it does get better. But let me warn you, the story does get a bit weird and shaky in the last few episodes ...

...of course one reason would be that my expectations were extremely high. From what I'd heard I expected this show to be damn near perfect, right from scene one.

I don't think there are shows that "everybody else seems to like" - just look how frequently I rate a show as "Watch" that gets only "Buy" or "Rent" ratings from other regular reviewers. And I don't worry about this because I know that I have different targets when watching an anime from those of the other reviewers.

There's a significant part of the personal enjoyment of a show based on one's own "taste" - sometimes you know whether you can reasonably expect to like a show, and sometimes you end up surprised or frustrated. That's why I am praising Comedies that end up getting a "Rent" from me (because that's probably the hightest rating I'll ever give a Comedy so they must have done their job quite well) while I'm bashing Dramas that end up getting a "Rent" from me (because they would have had the potential for getting a "Buy" so in my eyes they must be lacking something important, usually something that I would consider significant for their rewatchability value which should then result in not buying them).

For some shows I may even take "Buy" ratings from certain reviews as indication that I will most likely not like the show while other reviewers (most notably Forbin) tend to give really good "silent dramas" quite similar ratings to mine.

School Rumble, for example, is one of the top "hints" from another anime database from a group of about 150 reviewers whose rating sets were selected as being "most compatible" to mine (they have such a feature which I like very much) so despite it obviously being a Comedy I am giving it a try (not expecting it to be a "Buy" but at least not a waste of time either, i. e. playing in the same league as Azumanga Daioh).

I felt that even if my tastes are a little quirky, even if I tend to prefer comedy over action, a show which was voted best of the year ought to be good enough that even I would enjoy it greatly. I certainly didn't want to miss out on what might be a truly fantastic series. The best series of the year wouldn't take 4 or 5 episodes to get going (I thought), unless maybe this was not all that great a year for anime in general.

I assign the "Buy" rating less often nowadays. One of the reasons I've been editing my old reviews is to mark down shows which seemed fantastic when I first saw them, but are not quite so good in comparison to the many new shows I've seen since. "Buy" is a tricky term; does it mean "Worth buying even at premuim prices for brand new DVDs" or does it mean "Worth Buying if you can find old, used VHS tapes" (which was the way I got many of the shows I rated as "Buys" back then)? To a person with my finances, very few shows fall into the first category nowadays. I guess what Buy means to me is "worth rewatching numerous times".

Reviews are nice, but the only way to be certain if you'll like something is by watching it yourself.

How would I rate a show as "Buy" that hasn't been licensed in my country? I agree, "Buy" is a tricky term.

For me the difference between "Watch" and "Rent" is that I would suggest to go out of your way to get a "Rent" show (which might mean "go after the fansub" if nothing else were available) while a "Watch" show might not even reward more than watching it on TV (for anime fans with a taste compatible to mine of course); the difference between a "Rent" and a "Buy" is that I would encourage people to go for a "Buy" series with the expectation to watch it more than once while a "Rent" show might easily be a one-time experience so that renting it might be preferable to permanently owning it, given reasonable prices for both options.
Translating this to your terms it would mean that if you can purchase a "Rent" show on media that are so cheap that you would normally pay that much to rent a show, it would be fine to buy it in this case.

In general I am sceptical about "show of the year" animes because if that many people like it than it usually can't be a deep show without lots of action and/or comedy... or so I thought. But scanning Animereactor award lists tells me something else: Seikai no Senki II won four awards in 2001 (best overall, story, fantasy, and female character), Haibane Renmei won six awards in 2002 (best overall, character development, drama, fantasy, story, female character - no wonder it's my favourite anime ever), Kimi ga Nozomu Eien won two awards in 2003 (drama + romance), Koi Kaze won "Best Romance" in 2004, and Kanon (2006) won "Best Drama" in 2007... so it depends on which awards a show has won as all five I mentioned got "Buy" ratings from me as well. And REC as jury pick for "Best Romance" in 2006 narrowly missed a "Buy" from me.